EVGA is one of the elite NVIDIA partners that sells NVIDIA-designed motherboards based on the nForce chipsets, apart from being a leading graphics card vendor. EVGA for one, added innovation to the NVIDIA designs with its own level of enhancements, such as improved capacitors, more number of CPU power phases than NVIDIA's own designs, among others. EVGA brands these higher-grade motherboards under the "FTW" series. If you've spent long enough time on an internet bulletin board, you would know that FTW means "for teh win".

EVGA decided to give its flagship motherboard, the nForce 790i SLI FTW an improvement with its power circuits. The new board, 790i SLI FTW PWM circuitry a digital upgrade. The board features an 8-phase circuit for the CPU. It also provides digital power management. This is said to push up its overclocking capabilities. The board provides vDroop control and onboard power, reset and clear CMOS buttons. The motherboard supports all LGA-775 socket processors including the ones with 1600 MHz FSB. It supports memory with speeds of up to DDR3 2000 MHz. The nForce 790i SLI FTW DIGITAL PWM is now on sale at $339.99, $40 higher than the older nForce 790i SLI FTW.

I see two 4 Phase SMD Coupled Inductors and maybe 8 Multi-Phase Switching regulators. This way you will have rock stable 250 Watt CPU power circuit and no limitations for overclocking. Still there is weak a cooling for Switching regulators. These chips will get pretty hot, I think. Last time I checked Voltera specifications there was a 150 degree Celsius max temperature, so it is OK.

plus digital power management, an addition that is said to improved voltage stability, efficiency and bring better overclocking

Click to expand...

It's interesting , yo do'nt see the mosfets and there is only the heat pipe by the output stuff, none on the side of the cpu. I would be interested in how well this digital PWM works and what effect you really see, will i get better overclock, or just less ripple voltage and less vdroop or what....
Seems i need a EE to give me a better answer.

I wonder what that really means for the board? DPM hmmmm, need to do some reading.

It is something called "Advanced Voltage Regulator Module". You can find that thing working in ATI HD4870 and X2 GPU's power circuit. There is no need for hardware modifications to deal with Vdrop. Now you can do it "on the fly" in BIOS or in Windows monitoring application.

It is something called "Advanced Voltage Regulator Module". You can find that thing working in ATI HD4870 and X2 GPU's power circuit. There is no need for hardware modifications to deal with Vdrop. You can do it in BIOS or in Windows monitoring application.

Click to expand...

Hi, so do you see a benifit on the motherboard, i noticed that the mosfets seem to be gone and less heatpipes, but will it be noticible for overclockers.

I still don't get it what is the difference between these digital and (let's call it this way) "analog" PWMs. I am a second year electronics student, during study we mentioned PWM voltage regulation circuits and they are already digital power switching circuits. How come digital voltage regulator becomes more digital?

EDIT: I think the only difference between "analog" (normal) and digital PWMs is the switching frequency. Due to decreased filter capacitors size it seems that digital PWMs use much higher switching frequency.

it still runs hot, if i had that board i would've replaced the whole heatpipe with thermalright or swiftech chipset/mosfet coolers. Thats why i think evga shoul've improved cooling capability, not just the fan.

it still runs hot, if i had that board i would've replaced the whole heatpipe with thermalright or swiftech chipset/mosfet coolers. Thats why i think evga shoul've improved cooling capability, not just the fan.